State Rep. Marlene O'Toole kills early-learning bill

May 20, 2014|By Margie Menzel, News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Early learning advocates had mixed emotions as the recent legislative session ended with the death of a bill they had backed. At the same time, funding was increased for Florida's voluntary pre-kindergarten and school-readiness programs.

In the session's waning hours earlier this month, House Education Chairwoman Marlene O'Toole, R-Lady Lake, reluctantly pulled the plug on a bill (HB 7069) intended to upgrade the health, safety and teaching standards of the early learning programs.

"I killed it," O'Toole said. "I'd classify it as a hostage bill in the Senate."

The bill would have licensed private providers in the school-readiness program and required providers to notify parents of health and safety violations, including posting prominently on their premises citations resulting in disciplinary action. Providers with the worst violations — actions that could hurt or even kill a child, such as leaving one in a hot school bus for hours — could have lost their licenses.

But the bill died when it came back to the House from the Senate with half a dozen amendments, including some that O'Toole said weren't germane.

"As far as I knew, there was going to be some effort to try to reach an accord, but it just didn't happen," said Senate Education Appropriations Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. "It's something that's going to have to be addressed, perhaps, next session."

O'Toole said the bill is "absolutely desperately needed in Florida," and depending on how the House is reorganized in November, she hopes to sponsor it again or help someone else do so.

The budget highlights included an $8.8 million increase for the voluntary pre-K program, or $54 per student.

For the school-readiness program, which provides subsidized child care to the children of low-income working Floridians, the budget set aside $10.5 million for a quality pilot program and $3 million for additional slots.

"For the first time in our history, we established performance-based funding for early learning that mirrors our expectations for K-12 and higher education," said House Education Appropriations Chairman Erik Fresen, R-Miami. The voluntary pre-K and school-readiness programs had not had significant funding increases in a decade. But the $54-per-student increase for voluntary pre-K didn't bring the state back to where it had been in 2005-06.

Galvano said the early learning programs got a 2.3 percent increase, whereas the total education budget got a 2.6 percent increase.

"So it's in line with the level we were making increases," Galvano said. "I believe there is a greater understanding now of the impacts of early learning, and we're seeing evidence of that in our budget."

Meanwhile, lawmakers approved a far-reaching bill designed to revamp Florida's child welfare system. The bill was accompanied by $47 million in new funding for child welfare and also was linked to a sweeping human trafficking bill (HB 7141).

The most painful loss for children's advocates was the death of a proposal (HB 7 and SB 282) that would have eliminated a five-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrants to be eligible for KidCare, a subsidized insurance program that serves children from low- and moderate-income families.